If I seek adventure, I will call Freya Hoffmeister

The ‘Goddess of Love to the Seas’ circumnavigated Australia on a kayak. That’s close to 13,800 kilometres. Alone

Adventurers are a rare kind. How many can step away from the crowd and forge a new path all alone. You could get lonely. You might get lost, without a lifeboat or any chance of rescue. You could die of cold. You could fall out of the sky.

So many things could go wrong. Only a few people, a handful really, have the desire and also the motivation to encounter such odds.

What drives them: no idea. It’s not always fame. At times, it is just the thrill of seeing something new or experiencing something new or discovering a new place. Honestly, I don’t know.

What I know is the name of some such people

Ibn Battuta: the poster boy for people who love to travel

Hiuen Tsang: Chinese pilgrim who came to India to pursue his interest in Buddhism

Marco Polo: an Italian who chronicled his journey to China and experience in Asia

Vasco da Gama: portrayed as the first European to reach India by sea

Christopher Columbus: portrayed as the European who discovered the Americas

A lot of research and preparation goes into such journeys. At times, the journey may have been undertaken in search of new places, resources or trade routes. Which means, the person did not have the information we have now.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian, went westwards from Spain to establish a sea route to India and ended up in South America.

Vasco da Gama sailed eastwards from Portugal with the same aim. The Portuguese managed to cross the dangerous and often lethal Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He eventually made it to India, unlike many others who had faltered at the Cape of Good Hope.

Their ventures were like modern-day start-ups, only of a different kind. Monarchs and rich people invested in their promise to find new trade routes. In these two cases, the investments paid off. Or, at least, we can assume they did.

There were many other such investments, which we are not aware of.

The closest modern-day equivalent I can think of is the race to colonise space, involving Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and many others.

Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to raise funds for such ventures. It’s difficult (to imagine) because today we know now what the world looks like, have established trade routes, built vehicles for transportation by road, sea and air. People have been to most places on Earth. Even to the deepest part of the ocean, which is about 13 kilometres below mean sea level.

The only place left to explore is space.

But this is a costly venture. Not even governments can afford this venture. So you can try to imagine the kind of money Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have. I am talking of billions of dollars here. They have more money than the governments of some small nations. You can’t spend all that money on cars, clubs and caviar. The only place you can blow up that kind of money is in space.

Back on Earth, modern-day advances have made travel very easy. You have flights, trains, buses and ships. Go to a travel portal. Book tickets online. All it takes is about 48 hours to reach the other side of the globe.

But even now, there are some people who like to do things the old-fashioned way. Just for the adventure.

Like my hero Freya Hoffmeister (lead image. Courtesy Freya Hoffmeister). She went around the continent of Australia on a kayak. Alone. ‘Freya Shakti’ or ‘Goddess of Love to the Seas’ became the second person to complete the feat, and also did it faster than her predecessor Paul Caffyn.

Close to 13,800 kilometres. 245 days. Alone.

Now, why would someone undertake a feat like that. Leaving a teenager back home with his dad.

When I learnt about her feat, I tried to find out more and came across a book by Joe Glickman, a journalist who had chronicled her journey in Fearless: One Woman, One Kayak, One Continent. It was a fantastic read. Plus, the photograph on the cover is stunning.

Freya has circumnavigated New Zealand and South America among other places. Image courtesy Freya Hoffmeister

Such feats are often accompanied by tragedies. I learnt about one in the book by Joe. That of Andrew McAuley. He died while trying to cross the Tasman Sea. From Australia to New Zealand. A distance of around 1,600 kilometres. In a kayak. Alone.

The tragedy was that he was as close as around 30 kilometres from his landing spot in New Zealand when he made a distress call.

I keep wondering what must a person on a voyage like that be thinking when he realises that he may not be able to make it.

I have heard footage of that distress call. Several times.

And also, footage of him saying goodbye to his wife and son before embarking on his adventure.

I guess some people are just driven by some unknown force.

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Author: Dhiraj Shetty

Some people just love to travel. We all do this for our satisfaction. Quite often, what we see, don't see, hear, eat, experience becomes a talking point. We connect through our experiences on the road. This is where I connect with you. Welcome to my trip log.
I am a journalist based in Bengaluru. I relish local food and conversations with people in places I visit. Yea... sometimes I guess people do wonder why is this chap clicking pics of his meal! I write some of my travel stories and about the food I try. And I hope all the silly, stupid and embarrassing things I do come of some use to fellow travellers. Thanks for reading.
I would be happy to help if you need tips or guidance in south India. Most foreigners who visit India are drawn by the Taj Mahal, which is one of the wonders of the world, and the forts of Rajasthan in north India. I invite you to look beyond these two places, at south India.
I will be writing about the interesting places in this highly developed part of India, where the people are better educated, enjoy a better standard of living as compared to the rest of India, have built a reliable network of roads and transport services, and can count on state-of-the-art healthcare infrastructure.
South India is safer than any other part of India. and the gateway to south India is Bengaluru (aka Bangalore). Where do you want to go in south India? Look for the interesting places. And, I would be happy to guide fellow travellers
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